{"id":816927,"date":"2026-05-23T13:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T13:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/816927\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T13:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T13:42:17","slug":"wild-hoping-to-re-sign-michael-mccarron-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/816927\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Hoping To Re-Sign Michael McCarron \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Wild \u201cbadly want to re-sign\u201d mid-season trade addition Michael McCarron<\/strong><\/a>, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic<\/a>. McCarron is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Wild GM Bill Guerin spoke on McCarron\u2019s status in his end-of-season media availability, saying \u201cwe have a ton of interest in bringing Mac back. We thought he was a really good fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interest in finding a way to an extension appears to be mutual. McCarron said in his own end-of-season media availability<\/a> that he appreciated the faith Guerin and the Wild showed in him when they dealt a second-round pick to the Nashville Predators to add him at the trade deadline. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But he also added that he is \u201clooking for\u201d security in his next contract, calling himself someone who has yet to take \u201cthat next step financially\u201d in his career thus far.<\/p>\n

McCarron is lined up to potentially receive a life-changing contract as a free agent this summer. The 31-year-old\u2019s most lucrative contract was one he signed with the Predators in 2024, and that contained a base salary of $900K.<\/p>\n

AFP Analytics projects<\/a> McCarron to receive a two-year, $2MM AAV contract this summer, but that could very well be an extremely conservative projection. Russo and colleague Joe Smith wrote a week ago<\/a> that McCarron \u201cmay be able to get a $4 million or $5 million payday\u201d given the scarcity of centers on the free agent market.<\/p>\n

Offers at that kind of value would almost certainly price McCarron out of Minnesota. The cap hit of franchise forward Kirill Kaprizov<\/strong><\/a> is set to balloon from $9MM to $17MM this summer, and the Wild have several other pending free agents to re-sign, including Mats Zuccarello<\/strong><\/a>, Vladimir Tarasenko<\/strong><\/a>, Zach Bogosian<\/a><\/strong>, Marcus Johansson<\/strong><\/a>, Nick Foligno<\/strong><\/a>, and restricted free agent Bobby Brink<\/strong><\/a>. They also, of course, want to preserve as much cap space as possible to make further additions via trade or free agency. While the Wild appear eager to retain McCarron, and McCarron seems fully willing to commit to Minnesota, the money simply may not make sense for either side.<\/p>\n

As a free agent, McCarron could be a coveted bottom-six center option. The Wade Arnott (Newport Sports Management) client brings coveted size to the position, standing 6\u20196\u2033, 232 pounds. He showed himself to be capable as an NHL penalty-killer both with the Predators and with the Wild, and has long been an asset at the faceoff dot. McCarron won 52.5% of his draws in 2025-26 and had a 53.7% win rate during his time in Music City.<\/p>\n

There are limitations to McCarron\u2019s game, of course, and none is more pronounced than his offense. McCarron quite simply hasn\u2019t been able to produce much offense at the professional level, save for a strong rookie campaign in the AHL and a solid 12-goal, 22-point season with the Predators in 2023-24. But McCarron plays the kind of role where teams aren\u2019t going to be counting on him for offense, so it\u2019s easy to see why he\u2019d attract a lot of interest as a free agent center among teams looking to bolster their bottom-six.<\/p>\n

Minnesota is going to be one of those teams, but it\u2019s unclear at this time whether the finances are going to be right for either side.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Wild \u201cbadly want to re-sign\u201d mid-season trade addition Michael McCarron, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":816928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[269002,3112,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-816927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-michael-mccarron","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116624185568406791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}